Editor's Corner: A New Feature, and Some Thoughts on Local Swedish-American History

THE EDITOR'S CORNER
A N e w F e a t u r e , a n d S o m e T h o u g h t s o n L o c a l S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a n
H i s t o r y
With the present issue we are introducing our "Editor's Cor­ner,"
which we hope may prove a useful and regular part of
the QUARTERLY. Through it we hope to be able to raise new
questions and introduce new viewpoints regarding the Swedish
migration and immigrant experience. It may also serve as a
means to express some of your own ideas. My predecessor,
Franklin Scott, told me that perhaps the greatest problem he
faced as editor of this QUARTERLY was "that great silence out
there." We want to hear more from you, about what you like
or don't like about this publication and your reasons for feeling
as you do. If you have ideas and suggestions, we would like to
hear them and periodically to share them with your fellow read­ers.
We might from time to time turn the "Editor's Corner" over
to guest commentators. We envision many possibilities and uses
for this new feature.
Contributions that have come to us recently, including the
results of our 1974 Essay Contest (discussed by Franklin Scott
in this issue) have tended in several instances to be centered
upon common themes. Thus it was possible to devote the Janu­ary
issue this year largely to the Bishop Hill colony. The pres­ent
issue is concerned principally with another unique Swedish
settlement: New Sweden, Maine. In her article, below, Lilly
Setterdahl remarks on her surprise at learning how little has
been written about this community and how much remains to
be done. This is true enough in an absolute sense: there is much
more we could and would like to know about both New Sweden,
Maine, and Bishop Hill, Illinois. Yet in a relative sense, these
two Swedish-American communities are among the very few
for which we even come close to having reasonably complete
published historical information. I make this point in a review
in this issue of a good recent local study, but it is worth stress­ing
here. While we have good material on New Sweden, Maine,
71
we have remarkably little on New Sweden, Iowa, or New Swe­den,
Texas. If we know something about Lindsborg, Kansas, how
much do we really know about such important Swedish settle­ments
as Andover, Illinois, Madrid, Iowa, La Conner, Washing­ton,
or Kingsburg, California? If we are well informed about
Swedes in Chicago, how well informed are we about the Swedish
element in other cities like Omaha, Seattle, or San Francisco?
What information do we have readily available on any Swedish
settlement in Canada?
This is not to say that local Swedish-American historical studies
do not exist in some numbers; they do, but there should be
many more, particularly for important but neglected areas such
as the western Plains region or the Canadian prairie provinces.
Many of the local studies we do have were meanwhile produced
at times when the history they sought to chronicle was still in the
making.
There are thus any number of promising topics for local studies
awaiting enterprising local amateurs—including yourselves, first
and foremost—students, both undergraduate and graduate, and
professional historians. The sooner they are undertaken the more
rewarding they promise to be for all concerned.
As preparations began for this issue, news reached us of the
passing of our editor emeritus, E. GUSTAV JOHNSON. It is to his
memory that it is respectfully dedicated.
H. A. B.

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THE EDITOR'S CORNER
A N e w F e a t u r e , a n d S o m e T h o u g h t s o n L o c a l S w e d i s h - A m e r i c a n
H i s t o r y
With the present issue we are introducing our "Editor's Cor­ner,"
which we hope may prove a useful and regular part of
the QUARTERLY. Through it we hope to be able to raise new
questions and introduce new viewpoints regarding the Swedish
migration and immigrant experience. It may also serve as a
means to express some of your own ideas. My predecessor,
Franklin Scott, told me that perhaps the greatest problem he
faced as editor of this QUARTERLY was "that great silence out
there." We want to hear more from you, about what you like
or don't like about this publication and your reasons for feeling
as you do. If you have ideas and suggestions, we would like to
hear them and periodically to share them with your fellow read­ers.
We might from time to time turn the "Editor's Corner" over
to guest commentators. We envision many possibilities and uses
for this new feature.
Contributions that have come to us recently, including the
results of our 1974 Essay Contest (discussed by Franklin Scott
in this issue) have tended in several instances to be centered
upon common themes. Thus it was possible to devote the Janu­ary
issue this year largely to the Bishop Hill colony. The pres­ent
issue is concerned principally with another unique Swedish
settlement: New Sweden, Maine. In her article, below, Lilly
Setterdahl remarks on her surprise at learning how little has
been written about this community and how much remains to
be done. This is true enough in an absolute sense: there is much
more we could and would like to know about both New Sweden,
Maine, and Bishop Hill, Illinois. Yet in a relative sense, these
two Swedish-American communities are among the very few
for which we even come close to having reasonably complete
published historical information. I make this point in a review
in this issue of a good recent local study, but it is worth stress­ing
here. While we have good material on New Sweden, Maine,
71
we have remarkably little on New Sweden, Iowa, or New Swe­den,
Texas. If we know something about Lindsborg, Kansas, how
much do we really know about such important Swedish settle­ments
as Andover, Illinois, Madrid, Iowa, La Conner, Washing­ton,
or Kingsburg, California? If we are well informed about
Swedes in Chicago, how well informed are we about the Swedish
element in other cities like Omaha, Seattle, or San Francisco?
What information do we have readily available on any Swedish
settlement in Canada?
This is not to say that local Swedish-American historical studies
do not exist in some numbers; they do, but there should be
many more, particularly for important but neglected areas such
as the western Plains region or the Canadian prairie provinces.
Many of the local studies we do have were meanwhile produced
at times when the history they sought to chronicle was still in the
making.
There are thus any number of promising topics for local studies
awaiting enterprising local amateurs—including yourselves, first
and foremost—students, both undergraduate and graduate, and
professional historians. The sooner they are undertaken the more
rewarding they promise to be for all concerned.
As preparations began for this issue, news reached us of the
passing of our editor emeritus, E. GUSTAV JOHNSON. It is to his
memory that it is respectfully dedicated.
H. A. B.